Travis May

Current Position

Title: CEO (Shaper Capital); Founder/Co-Founder at multiple companies Company: Shaper Capital Location: San Francisco, California (publicly available from LinkedIn and company profiles)

Professional Background

Travis May is a serial entrepreneur and investor with a proven track record building category-defining data connectivity platforms. Born in 1987 in Cary, North Carolina, May graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 2009 with degrees in economics and mathematics. He began his career as Vice President of Product at Rapleaf, a startup co-founded by Auren Hoffman, before moving into founding roles. May's career trajectory demonstrates a consistent focus on solving data fragmentation problems across industries—first in marketing and advertising, then in healthcare—and now across multiple sectors through his investment vehicle.

May co-founded LiveRamp in 2011 as Vice President of Product alongside Auren Hoffman. The company pioneered data onboarding for the marketing industry, connecting fragmented data sources across enterprises. Acxiom acquired LiveRamp for $310 million in 2014, and May served as CEO of the LiveRamp division under Acxiom, scaling it to over $200 million in annual revenue before departing in 2018. He then founded Datavant in 2017 with co-founder Ramaswamy, applying the same data-connectivity playbook to healthcare where the stakes—patient outcomes—were significantly higher. Datavant merged with Ciox Health in 2021 in a $7 billion transaction, with May transitioning to President and Board Member. After exiting active leadership roles in early 2024, May founded Shaper Capital in 2023 as his family office and incubation platform, with a stated goal of building 50 unicorn-scale companies over the next decade.

Career Timeline

Education

• B.A. in Economics and Mathematics (magna cum laude), Harvard College, 2009

Public Presence

Social Media

Note: Only publicly accessible profiles are documented. No verified personal X/Twitter account found associated with Travis May's professional work.

Published Writings

Medium (Primary Platform)

• "Reflections on the Second Year of Shaper" — Medium (September 2025)
• "Datavant 2.0: Connecting the World's Health Data to Improve Patient Outcomes" — Medium (2022)
• "Expanding Datavant Switchboard for Digital Release of Information" — Medium (April 2022)
• "Introducing the Datavant Switchboard" — Medium (July 2021)
• "The Fragmentation of Health Data: A Survey of the Health Data Ecosystem" — Datavant/Medium (2020-2022)
• "The Fragmentation of Public Health Data" — Medium (2021)
• "The Datavant Vision: Connecting the World's Health Data" — Datavant/Medium (2019-2020)
• "Lessons from LiveRamp" — Medium (2018)

Datavant Blog & Publications

• Multiple articles on privacy-preserving health data exchange, interoperability initiatives, and patient data connectivity
• Co-authored press releases and company announcements regarding major product launches and acquisitions

Public Speaking

• Interview: "The people behind healthcare innovation: Interview with Travis May, President and Founder of Datavant" — LinkedIn Pulse (2022)
• Panelist and speaker on healthcare data fragmentation, data connectivity, and outcome-based care (various healthcare conferences)
• Available through All American Speakers talent booking agency for speaking engagements
• Featured in Clinical Research Currents interview on AI/ML in clinical trials (2022)

Communication Style

Tone: Visionary yet pragmatic; technical but accessible to non-technical audiences; direct and solution-oriented.

Recurring themes:

• Data fragmentation as a fundamental industry problem with outsized impact
• The potential for technology to unlock immediate improvements in patient outcomes
• Privacy-preserving approaches to data sharing and interoperability
• Building "neutral" platforms and infrastructure for industries
• Pattern recognition across industries (marketing, healthcare, intelligence/defense) where data fragmentation creates barriers

Notable positions:

• Strong advocate for privacy-first approaches to healthcare data sharing (emphasized in Privacy Hub announcements)
• Believes healthcare data fragmentation is one of the most important challenges of the era
• Sees data connectivity infrastructure as mission-critical, not merely a business opportunity

Travis May's communication style is characterized by a macro-level strategic perspective combined with granular product understanding. His written work consistently opens with problem diagnosis—quantifying the scale and cost of fragmentation—before pivoting to solution architecture. He frequently employs comparative analysis (e.g., "why hasn't healthcare data connectivity achieved what marketing data onboarding has?") to frame urgency. His tone in Medium articles and interviews is confident but not boastful; he emphasizes team and company achievements rather than personal accomplishments. May communicates with both precision and storytelling—he can articulate complex data flows and regulatory constraints, but anchors discussions in human outcomes (patient longevity, treatment efficacy, cost reduction). His recent "Reflections on the Second Year of Shaper" article demonstrates willingness to discuss both successes (two portfolio companies reaching $10M ARR within 15 months) and strategic pivots (doubling down on six companies rather than launching new ones), suggesting a thoughtful, data-driven approach to communication that values transparency about lessons learned.

Notable Achievements

• Forbes 30 Under 30 (2016, Marketing & Advertising category) — recognized for leadership in data connectivity at age 28
• Ad Age 40 Under 40 (2016) — acknowledged for innovation in data and marketing technology
• LiveRamp: Co-founded and led platform to $310 million acquisition by Acxiom (2014); scaled division to $200+ million annual revenue; established LiveRamp as category leader in data onboarding with 250+ enterprise clients (American Express, Adobe, Google)
• Datavant: Co-founded healthcare data connectivity platform from startup to $7 billion merger with Ciox Health (2021); grew platform to enable 60+ million healthcare records exchanged across thousands of organizations; achieved adoption by 75% of top 100 health systems
• Datavant Switchboard: Launched first product enabling digital, API-driven patient data release; achieved adoption by 4,000+ healthcare facilities
• Shaper Capital: Established family office/incubation platform with portfolio companies achieving impressive early traction ($10M+ ARR within 15 months, $30M Series B, $10M+ commercial deals)
• Board Memberships: Serves on boards of Datavant, Arbital Health, Fractional AI, Zenith Health, Protege, and Catena Clearing

Key Relationships

• Co-founders: Auren Hoffman (LiveRamp), Ramaswamy (Datavant), Brian Overstreet (Arbital Health), Kartik Chopra (Adelphi)
• Board Positions & Leadership:
  • Protege (Chairman)
  • Arbital Health (Co-Founder & Board Member)
  • Fractional AI (Co-Founder & Chairman)
  • Zenith Health (Co-Founder & Chairman)
  • Catena Clearing (Board Member)
  • Adelphi (Co-Founder)
  • Datavant (Board Member)
  • Prognos Health (Advisor)
• Investor Network: Active in healthcare tech and data infrastructure investment through Shaper Capital; portfolio includes healthcare-focused companies (Zenith, Arbital, Adelphi) and broader data infrastructure plays (Fractional AI, Protege)
• Key Influencers: Collaborated with healthcare leaders, data privacy experts, and enterprise software builders throughout career; maintains advisory relationships with healthcare organizations and research institutions

Notes on Information Availability

Public Information Level: High. Travis May maintains active public profiles on LinkedIn and Medium, regularly speaks about his companies and vision, and companies he founded/led have extensive press coverage and public materials. Information is readily available but concentrated in professional/business contexts rather than personal domains.

Data Sources: LinkedIn, Medium articles, company websites (Datavant, Shaper Capital), press releases, interviews, Wikipedia, Crunchbase, PitchBook, and news archives.